Illamasqua Harem and Nurture

Tonight I've got two gorgeous Illamasqua lacquers to show to you: Harem and Nourish. 

Harem was released earlier this year and is a lovely blue-based pink creme; it's not quite your standard pastel pink- it has much more of a lavender hue to it. As per usual, the formula was great, barely needing two coats for perfection. 

Nurture is part of last year's Rubber Brights collection, and sports an interesting satin/rubber finish- it is also the most incredible vivid green. It's extremely bright, but doesn't come off as a citrusy neon- rather, it has an beautiful fresh leafy-ness to it, if that makes sense. I absolutely loved wearing this one, and was sorry to remove it. Very unique.

What do you think of these lacquers from Illamasqua? Can you think of any polishes similar to Illamasqua Nurture?

Illamasqua Nomad

Tonight I've got a really awesome polish to share with you- this is Illamasqua Nomad. A gorgeous and unique jade green creme. I don't have any other shade like this- it's not as blue-toned as most mint shades are. It's also quite saturated. In terms of formula, it was flawless. Perfect coverage in two coats. 

I couldn't resist including a couple photos of this mani with the ring I was wearing it with: a cute white rabbit. Although these last two photos aren't the most colour accurate, I really love how Nomad looked paired with it.

Nomad is currently available through Illamasqua, and I'd also highly recommend checking out their seriously amazing sale... a lot of incredible items are a steal at 5 pounds a piece. This includes a lot of awesome nail lacquers, so definitely check it out!

If you're curious about my ring, I got it here.

What do you think of Illamasqua Nomad? Have you taken advantage of their current sale?

Cherry Blossom Nail Decals on Illamasqua Baptiste.

Recently I was contacted by KKCenterHK, a Hong Kong based beauty and nail art supplier, who asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a few of their products. I was quite happy to accept, as nail decals are a new technique for me to experiment with- I haven't experimented much with any kind of nail art, so this was a fun way to get started. Today I have a set of "3D" white cherry blossom nail decals to show you, and I've applied them over Illamasqua Baptiste, a deep shimmery purple and my manicure from the other day. 

Overall, these were surprisingly easy to use. I'm not sure why I was expecting it to be hard, but they're basically just slightly raised stickers you remove from the sheet and place on the nail. These pictures were taken prior to applying topcoat, but with topcoat they stay in place nicely. This is definitely a look I'll have to get used to, as I usually stick to plain colours without any nail art, but it was a nice way to dip my toes into the world of nail art. What do you think of these nail decals?

You can find more product information here, and the item code for this product is "3D-051".

*Nail decals were sent to me for unbiased review; all opinions are my own. 

Illamasqua - Baptiste

Tonight I have a gorgeous Illamasqua polish to show you: this is Baptiste, a very deep purple with lots of shimmery goodness. The overall effect was very velvety and rich; it looks quite dark (almost black) in low light, but mostly it appears as a very deep purple. The formula was par for the course when it comes to Illamasqua- very pigmented, easy to control, and opaque in two coats.

What do you think of Baptiste? Does this one have a home in your collection?

Since I always associate manicures with notable events, and I wore this lacquer on the night I went to a Dragonette concert, I'll leave you with an awesome music video for a song from their latest album: 

Illamasqua Creator - A damn fine lacquer

Illamasqua Creator: black with tiny silver glitter, two coats of perfection. I LOVE this polish- and this coming from the girl complaining about how she doesn't go for black lacquer in the previous post. Well, this is amazing, and I'm in love with how my nails look with this on.

"You know, this is - excuse me- a damn fine lacquer. And I've had, I can't tell you how many lacquers I've had in my life, and this is one of the best."

Comparison Post with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and Illamasqua Stance

In my post about China Glaze's On Safari collection last week I mentioned doing a comparison post for Kalahari Kiss; I have that (plus another comparison featuring Illamasqua Stance) for you today. 

By far the closest colour to China Glaze Kalahari Kiss in my collection is MAC's In The Buff (a limited edition shade from summer 2010). However, I think these two colours are far from being twins. Kalahari Kiss is much brighter and cleaner, whereas In The Buff has a much dirtier, murkier tinge to it.

Left to Right: China Glaze, MAC, China Glaze, MAC

In The Buff leans towards the greenish/grey side, while Kalahari Kiss is much more of a clean camel-beige. It's also much more wearable than In The Buff, and generally more flattering, in my opinion. Formula-wise, I'll also take the China Glaze over the MAC. MAC's lacquers are notorious for being weak in terms of formula, and this was still a little streaky at two coats, were Kalahari Kiss was perfect.

The other comparison I wanted to share with you features Illamasqua Stance and Zoya Charisma.

When I first tried Illamasqua Stance, it's nearly-neon vividness brought to mind another purple-neon: Zoya Charisma. However, the two are actually quite different.

Left to Right: Illamasqua, Zoya, Illamasqua, Zoya

Illamasqua Stance is much more cool toned and purple leaning, where Zoya Charisma is more of a warm pink-red. Charisma is also more of a true neon, drying with a matte finish. I much prefer the look and finish on Illamasqua Stance. For me, there is no contest here- Illamasqua knocked this one out of the park. You can see my original swatches of it here.

Just for the heck of it I also pulled out NARS Anardana to add to the comparison (it's shown here on the index finger), but it much more of a pink, rather than purple.

I hope these comparisons helped you out! Which colours are your favourite?

Illamasqua Stance

Today I've got a stunner to share with you- this is Illamasqua Stance. It's a very saturated, nearly neon, bright pink/purple. The formula, as usual with Illamasqua, was flawless. What you see here was two coats:

Isn't she gorgeous? Definitely an attention-grabber.

I think this is a pretty unique shade, although now that I think about it, Zoya Charisma has a similar kind of feel to it (neon pink/purple), but if I recall correctly it's not as pigmented. I'll do a comparison post in the future between these two.

What do you think of Illamasqua Stance? I'm pretty crazy about it, I must admit!

The first time I wore this polish was to a Janelle Monae concert; I love how I always associate certain lacquers with notable events that occurred while I was wearing them. It makes me love them all the more. Do you do the same thing?

I'll leave you with an awesome Janelle Monae video (if you haven't checked her out before, I highly recommend it!):

Illamasqua Load and China Glaze Afterglow (featuring bonus pictures of my first attempt at the half moon manicure!)

Before we get to today's manicure, I want to show you what became of my Mermaid's Tears manicure from the other day:

My first attempt at the half moon manicure! I chose OPI Get in the Expresso Lane, a deep brown, to compliment the turquoise of Mermaid's Tears. I love the combination of dark brown and turquoise, it's one of my favourite combinations. I used paper reinforcements to create this look, which was incredibly easy. Here is what it looked like as a work in progress:

I think next time I will take extra care to make sure they are stuck on really well so I get a crisper line, and I'll also place them just a bit lower to show less of the base colour. What do you think of my first attempt at a half moon manicure?

Now, onto today's manicure! This will be my first time posting an Illamasqua lacquer, but you'll probably see a couple more in the future. I really love this brand.

This is Illamasqua Load. Yes, this is a polish called "Load". I think I'll just leave it at that, shall I?

Anyways, this is a really unique polish, as it's a kind of off-white. We'll call it antique lace, I think. I haven't come across anything like it before. The formula is very good for a white polish, as they tend to be super streaky, but this is two coats and it's pretty perfect. I like how it looks here, but I thought I would this would make a good base for China Glaze Afterglow.

Afterglow was one of my $2 purchases from the other day, and I was quite excited to find it. I recall seeing it featured on Scrangie's Blog and was fascinated. In real life, this lacquer has the most amazing and very strong blue flash- not only in sunlight or bright light, but also in lower lighting, which I love.

Here is Afterglow, layered over Load:

It does take on a somewhat yellowy tone (albeit not as yellow as in the last picture), which I'm not totally thrilled about, but it looks really cool. And I couldn't quite capture how bright the blue flash is, unfortunately. I can't wait to try it over other colours!

These are a couple lacquers I really like; in particular the Illamasqua is really fantastic. I have good memories of London when I wear Illamasqua, because I purchased my Illamasqua lacquers during a trip to London. I had the opportunity to visit the Illamasqua store near Carnaby Street (a shopping district in London that I really love).

I really wish I had taken a couple pictures of the Illamasqua store itself- it was pretty cool! And the ladies working there were really nice, too. If I go back there, I'll definitely take pictures to share with you (along with new purchases, I'm sure!).

As it happened, we were in London during a rather momentous occasion...

This was taken while watching the Royal Wedding on big screens in Hyde Park. It was an exciting (and busy) time to be in London.

Do you own any Illamasqua lacquers? What are your favourites? How about China Glaze Afterglow? What do you think of it?